If Home Is Where Your Heart Is. . . .

I went to Sam's today with Hays and Dax and we had a great time! SIX CARTS of food for the camp. . .picture that! Yes, ALL of that fit in my car. . .barely! And here is poor little Dax in the car on the way home! (And that really was a smile. . .a big belly laugh actually, but in the picture it looks more like the first stage of panic.)

I know that for most of you, summer being half way over is kind of a bummer...all the time with your kids and fun vacations and days at the pool or the park or whatever "normal" moms do in the summer. For me, summer being half way over is so exciting! I am ready to have my family back! I'm ready to see my kids when they wake up in the morning and I am ready to tuck them in at night. I'm ready to snuggle on the couch with Dax any time the two of us are in the house together. It has been a great summer at Camp Kivu! The campers are having a blast. The staff has been good. I've loved watching Andy be so happy and I've loved the new friends I've made, but I am so thankful that summer is half way over! These next two weeks we have some fun visitors coming. The Nimrods are coming from Missouri for a few days and the Schwedlands are coming from Texas for a few more days after that. I cannot wait to see my girlfriends! This is also the last ten days tha...

I just snagged these pictures from another person's camera, too! Thanks, GoGo, for the cute 4th of July swim wear!

It has been a while. . .sorry! Camp is in FULL swing and I'm "in" 100%. . .therefore my personal life (and blog) get neglected! Below are a bunch of pictures that I just got from my manny. . .they are from the beginning of the summer until now. Enjoy! (Also, in some of the pictures below, you may not recognize the kids. . .we had friends from Oklahoma come to visit and their kids made some of the pictures. . .especially since one of them is apparently Gabby's new boyfriend!)

God is SO good! Read below from Melissa's journal: After about a 4 hour surgery today, the Professor came out and told us that he got all the tumor...it was scary for a moment because of alot of blood loss but they got it under control and now Chase is sleeping peacefully as I type this! What an amazing God we serve who never leaves us nor forsakes us! Chase is talking, moving his arms, legs, head, fingers & toes! And just told one of the nurses (jokingly) that he just wanted to "relax" - in other words...stop messing with me! ha This has been a tremendous day in so many ways - we are so grateful for prayers, for emails, texts, facebook messages, etc.! We will continue to be at UAMS for the next 24 hours then will be transported by ambulance to Children's for a few more days. MRI or CT scan tomorrow just so Professor can make sure all is well in there before sending Chase off. My heart is FULL of JOY and THANKFULNESS! Love, Melissa

Below is Melissa's journal entry from today: It's amazing how quickly 4 days has gone - I can't believe it's already almost Friday! If only Friday meant it was time to go home and enjoy this 4th of July weekend! I wish! And Chase has asked us numerous times today "let's just go home". He's really dreading tomorrow - but hopefully the devotion tonight and prayers tonight and tomorrow will comfort him somewhat. I hope they comfort his parents as well! Chase asked me earlier in the week if we could memorize some more scripture. He said "I just don't know enough by heart." So, I said sure thing buddy and we started with one that his great friend Colten wrote down for him to have this week. It's from Isiah 43:2 "When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. For I am the Lord, your God." He really gets into memorizing stuff...except when it comes to sc...